Video Transcript
The diagram below shows a composite
particle made up of three quarks. What is that particle?
Quarks are subatomic particles and
fundamental constituents of matter. They make up larger subatomic
particles, such as protons and neutrons. There are six types or flavors of
quarks, including up, charm, top, down, strange, and bottom. Each quark contains a fractional
electric charge. Three of the flavors of quarks have
a charge of positive two-thirds 𝑒, while the other three flavors have a charge of
negative one-third 𝑒, where 𝑒 is the electrical charge carried by one proton.
To answer this question, we need to
use the diagram given to determine the identity of a particle. We can see that this composite
particle is composed of one up quark and two down quarks. We can determine the overall charge
of the unidentified particle by summing the charges of its two down quarks and one
up quark. This gives us a value of zero
𝑒. A neutron is a subatomic particle
that has no electric charge, so we might deduce that this composite particle is a
neutron.
We can confirm this to be true
because neutrons are particles that consist of one up quark and two down quarks. Therefore, the composite particle
shown that consists of one up quark and two down quarks is a neutron.
